Ex-Hearts Kevin Twaddle: Gambling causing carnage in football

A FORMER Hearts star is calling on the Scottish Government to end betting sponsorship of football to help beat an “epidemic” of gambling addiction among players.

Kevin Twaddle, who lost more than £1 million through his own gambling habit while he was a player, now gives counselling to footballers struggling with the problem.

And he described how one desperate player had nearly jumped from the Forth Road Bridge because if his addiction.

Twaddle, whose career also included playing for Motherwell and St Johnstone, said Scotland should follow the example of the English FA, which ended its £4 million a year sponsorship deal with Ladbroke’s.

He said: “Gambling is causing carnage in Scottish football. A lot of players are struggling massively with major gambling problems. There’s an epidemic.

“I was talking to a boy earlier this month who was totally and utterly broken and had thought about jumping off the Forth Road Bridge. He’d actually driven there to do it.